After a space trip with Beyond Earth and return to its fundamentals with its sixth component, the saga Civilization remains still a reference of the 4X. In its desire to expand the initial content of Civ 6, Firaxis has offered us, for 150 laps, to test the features of the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Rise and Fall download.As much to say it immediately, to judge the extent of Rise and Fall on parts limited to 150 turns obviously does not allow to have a complete vision of the title. However, we have been able to gauge the main additions to the extension, which seems to add more than to upset your approach to your part of Civilization 6.

From now on, before each passage from one era to another, you will be able to accumulate a certain number of points to try to pass to a golden age granting significant bonuses to your civilization. You can accumulate points of age in many different ways: at the beginning of the game, shaving a barbarian village will be considered a feat just like the discovery of a natural wonder. Of course, these historical facts, identified as and when discovered in a beautiful timeline, are likely to change from one era to another and it is up to the player to discover how to unlock to go from a normal age at a golden age. But as nothing is perfect in this world, if you do not manage to accumulate enough points to reach a prosperous era, your civilization will enter a dark age which will bring with it penalties on many parameters of your civilization, but which will also allow you to adopt radical but effective policies so as not to sink into chaos.

However, it is not necessarily fair to believe that the latter is an insurmountable evil, on the contrary. Indeed, the dark age also means that the number of historical points to harvest in the next era will be less important to reach a golden age. If you manage to access it, a heroic age will trigger and bring with it very advantageous bonuses. Juggling with the eras does not seem to be a bad strategy in the long run and the dark age will not always be an insurmountable punishment.

Besides the fact that the bonuses to choose between the transition from one era to another will be more or less powerful as you enter a golden age, normal, or dark, the constant impact on the new era is felt on a new feature also introduced by Rise and Fall: loyalty. From now on, each city you create as well as the city-states has a gauge symbolizing their loyalty to you. If this gauge falls to 0, the city becomes a free city and can be easily recovered by the enemy.

Several levers are available to you to influence loyalty, especially that of city-states, starting with the simple positioning of the cities you build. The latter, loyal by default, will have a range of influence of 9 boxes on the surrounding cities. Thus, if you surround a city-state with many of your cities, the loyalty of this city will gradually shift in your favor, which you will see through a special filter. It will therefore be necessary to anticipate the construction of your cities, knowing of course that the influence of loyalty can turn to your disadvantage. For example, building an isolated city close to a large opposing empire can shift the loyalty of your flock to the enemy.

To thwart the loss of loyalty and also refine the management of your empire, Rise and Fall is based on a system of governors. Seven in number, each governor can be assigned to a city or city-state to influence the different elements that govern them. One governor will be specialized in providing loyalty, another in the military force or in increasing production. A rather good introduction that adds an extra dose of micro-management to a game that was already demanding a lot.

Finally, and even if we could not measure the full depth, an emergency system was put in place by the extension. When a worrying event occurs (use of the atomic weapon, capture of a key city by an opponent) a sort of crisis coalition is set up for all leaders who will make a truce to defeat the common enemy . In the case of capturing a city for example, your goal will be to release it in a given time. If you succeed, a bonus to the entire coalition will be distributed while a failure will strengthen the position of your opponent. This element seems to partly dictate the pace of your tours, forcing you to leave sometimes urgent tasks aside to deal with the state of emergency.